European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 23, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Movie kindles renewed interest in autism by Peg Byron United press International hey Are difficult children demanding rigid routines unable to relate to even their mothers and repeating the same stories or actions time after time. They Are autistic children and interest in the developmental disorder they surfer has been sparked with the recent release of the movie rain Man starring Tom cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Advocates for autistic people Are welcoming the movie with Hope that it will not Only promote Public compassion but also raise awareness among parents and doctors who suspect something is not quite right with a child. Behavioural signs of autism vary greatly but usually emerge during a child s first year and before age 3. An apparently healthy child begins to become withdrawn and easily irritated possibly adopting Odd behaviour patterns. It almost always involves deficits in language and interpersonal relations said or. Doris Allen a psychologist who directs an intensive therapy program in Bronx new York. Human relations seem like a second language for these children and their play activities impoverished she said. When routines Are disrupted they get very upset and have what seem like tantrums and might be characterized As panic attacks. A lot of parents keep hoping their child will grow out of it she said. But delaying diagnosis and treatment is a mistake experts agree even though so Little is known yet about autism. United artists the movie rain Man starring Dustin Hoffman As an autistic Man and Tom cruise As his brother has drawn National attention to the development and treatment of autism. Its cause is suspected to be genetic but just How autism affects the child s thoughts and feelings remains hidden behind the communications Barrier that is characteristic of the disorder. Unlike Hoffman s character the majority of children with the disorder Are also mentally retarded but even that varies widely in degrees and it is impossible to generalize about their cognitive abilities. I never would have identified my son As autistic based on what i Learned when i was a psychology major in College said a Westchester county social worker. Everyone said nothing is wrong. I had to convince everybody something was wrong said the Mother whose 3-year-old is enrolled in Allen s program at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine s therapeutic Nursery. My son s development seemed to me perfectly Normal until 18 months. He was an Early talker. He had a great vocabulary. He could wave Good Bye All the things kids do she recalled. Then at 18 months he became obsessed with numbers and letters. He taught himself to subtract at 2," said the Mother who asked that her name not be used. But he got stuck on that and he stopped using words that he knew. If he got angry he d shout numbers. Then i realized it was very hard for him to develop relationships with other people. Every time he went to his play group it s like they were strangers she said. Once her son was diagnosed As autistic this Mother had to wait nearly seven months for a special pre school program with room for him in spite of a Federal Law requiring states to make available appropriate education for All disabled children. Now she and her son spend five half Days a week with a handful of the Nursery s 25 autistic children. She reports her son is now Able to hold hands with other children and it s easier to become his  we begin our work by sort of seducing them into interpersonal Contact Allen said while nearby a group of average looking 3-year-Olds played a Long game of ring around the Rosie. They love running around in circles so we do ring around the Rosie to get them into social Contact. It looks so much better to see them together than spinning around by themselves she commented. Allen whose program works Only with non retarded autistic children proudly says the first child she treated is now in College. There s really no excuse for there being As Little treatment available As there is. Part of the problem is the failure to see the need to do this work Early she said. At the autism society of America in Washington d.c., the number of phone Calls and letters have increased and Tom Nerney the director applauded Hoffman s movie. I was blown away at How Well Dustin Hoffman does that Nerney said adding the movie makes it Clear that this character does t belong in an institution. Clearly the future for people with autism is integration into the Community and going to neighbourhood schools and working at Normal  about 25 years ago i saw a Broadway musical about the army where the hero was in charge of latrines. When his commanding officer visited one Day to inspect his work the private pressed his foot on a lever and every toilet seat popped up in Snappy Salute. I remember jumping out of my seat Yelling Bravo Bravo my husband had to contain me. I was witnessing greatness and i knew it. Before my eyes was a scientific breakthrough whose time had come a toilet seat that would go up Only on command. The rest of the time it would be Down where it belonged. It has taken a full 25 years for a potato Farmer in Maine to implement the idea. He and his wife were shopping one Day in Quebec when she began playing around with a trash can that had a pedal attached that opened the lid. At that moment the husband had a vision that would revolutionize marriages throughout the world a 21st Century shuttle seat that you could launch and land at will. My wife was real enthused with it he said because there s always the Battle about whether the toilet seat stays up or  that is the understatement of the Century. Do you realize that the Only argument Donna Reed and or. Stone Ever had was Over the seat on the commode. I heard that someplace it s one of those Little gnats that Buzz around in a marriage not important enough to Squash but important enough to take a swat at three or four times a Day. It s insensitivity in its Rawest form. How would men like it if they got up in the Middle of the night and groped their Way Down a dark hallway Only to fall Down a dark bottomless Hole like Alice in wonderland How would they like it if every time they stooped to pick a Towel off the floor the seat from the commode knocked them senseless i remember when the women s movement was at its Peak and everyone was screaming for unisex bathrooms. I warned you be gone too far Sisters. I be cleaned unisex bathrooms for More than 20 years and i m Here to Tell you it s a bad  from birth a boy child considers a toilet seat balancing in mid air a natural position. Through conscientious conditioning you can teach a male child to eat with a Fork say thank you carry a nose tissue wipe his feet at the door Button his coat in cold weather Brush his Teeth keep gum in his Mouth his feet on the floor and a civil Tongue in his head but you will never never get him to put a toilet seat Down. If our Friend from Maine in t on the cover of time next december As Man of the year i la be amazed. He built a prototype of his idea in his workshop installed it on his own commode and sees a Bright future for the attachment. I like to think it s what president George Bush meant when he asked for a Kinder gentler America. Today the toilet seat tomorrow the car seat pushed up to where it belongs c 1989ermabombeck Page 16 the stars and stripes monday january 23, 1989